Thermal

0.5
Hiemal

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"So, this is the Southern Water Tribe, huh?" Naruto cocked her head to a side, blinking those grey eyes that still didn't sit quite right in her face.

Stood beside the blonde, Sasuke watched her watch the stretch of barren snow that was their current destination.

Nine years of travelling the world together, gaining an understanding of this strange new place they'd been born into, it'd certainly been an experience with Naruto at his side.

The blonde never failed to make things interesting.

They'd seen the injustice happening all around them, the war -why was it that it this world or their old one there was always some fighting going on?- and sworn to train, to get strong enough to fight and make a difference.

Even if they could actually join the Earth Kingdom Army -as if they'd let a Firebender in their ranks- the reborn duo had been determined.

They'd managed to duck through the Fire Nation once already, dying Naruto's hair black with a potent mixture of ingredients such as charcoal. The Earth Kingdom hadn't been that big of a problem, Naruto had walked around with her hair golden blonde once again, and while she'd gotten a fair few stares -no one here seemed to have any variation when it came to hair colour, it was all browns or blacks- and Sasuke's eyes were such a dark shade of gold most seemed to mistake them for the ebony he'd had in his previous life.

Having visited the Fire Nation, made their way through the Earth Kingdom and popped in on one of the Air Temples -Naruto had insisted on burying all the dead they'd found, understandably- they only had one place left to go and visit.

The Water Tribes.

As such, here they now stood, having left one of the very few trading boats the Earth Kingdom ever bothered to send out to the South, a pack slung over each of their shoulders.

Two middle aged women stared quite blatantly at them, switching between Naruto's obnoxiously coloured hair to Sasuke's painfully Fire Nation colouring. Their blue eyes were round with worry and fear, and Sasuke could hear Naruto suck in a determined breath before she began making her way over.

Now in a land that had much less chance of running into a Fire Nation Brigade -or hell even a soldier- Naruto had reverted back to her favoured orange, even if she'd been sensible enough to pair some white with it, given their current location of choice.

Sasuke himself had stuck to simple black and white, not a commonly used combination, especially without any colours to determine his heritage.

Regarding his appearance, he was basically thumbing his nose up at the Fire Nation.

Rightfully so, considering their tyranny status right now.

"Hi there! My name's Naruto and this is Sasuke, we're looking for the Southern Water Tribe, is it around here?" Naruto beamed, a grin across her face and tanned, whiskered cheeks lifting with the force of her smile.

Sasuke didn't even try to offer one of his own, already well aware that it'd look less than sincere. He couldn't smile on command like Naruto did.

Glower, yes.

Smile, no.

Hesitantly, the two women shared a look before one nodded, the other quietly asking what the two of them were even doing here.

Beaming, Naruto rocked back on her heels, before seemingly to notice that he wasn't stood quite beside her, and instead, just a little behind. With a huff, she latched onto his arm, pulling him closer to the duo and ignoring the way the women flinched back.

"We're travelling, we've been all over the place and I've heard so many good things about Water Tribe Sea Prunes and I really wanna try them for myself and the Southern Tribe was closer than the North one."

When the two women didn't seem to be any more convinced, Naruto frowned a bit more, rubbing at the back of her neck and scowling when she encountered the resistance of her thick orange parka.

"Ignore Sasuke, he's just grumpy because you don't grow tomatoes up here."

"Naruto!" Sasuke hissed under his breath, clocking the girl around the head and scowling as she giggled at the reprimand.

The two women shared one more glance, before the one on the right finally gave a low nod.

"Okay… We'll show you the way."

Even as she spoke though, glances were taken of their eyes once again, and Sasuke made sure to keep his head angled in such a way the light wouldn't catch his irises, leaving his eyes looking as if they were nothing more that coal.

.

It'd been two weeks since Hokiri and Nenahn had brought back two strangers to the camp.

Kanna watched them move with wary eyes, had made certain to always watch them whenever she could. The two travellers were young, perhaps only two or three years older than her grandson.

But they moved with a grace that Kanna hadn't seen for years. She could pick out a pair of benders when she saw them, regardless of how many years it'd been since she last saw one.

She was, admittedly, quite terrified of the two.

The boy was a fire bender.

There was no way he was anything other than a fire bender. She'd caught him quickly pulling on a parka whenever he left the little igloo their tribe had offered them, but his limbs had never shaken from the cold.

The very few times she'd passed by the two, when they'd shook hands upon meeting, he was always so very warm. There was nothing she could do though.

Even if she were to announce what the boy was, that didn't mean they would be able to do anything about it. He was skilled, it was obvious in the way he moved, how he never stopped taking note of his surroundings.

The only thing that didn't stop her from barring them completely from the village was how the two interacted.

The boy was completely besotted with the girl. His eyes followed her everywhere she went, he straightened every time he had her attention, gave her the most subtle touches that were just embedded with genuine affection. The brat was head over heels in love.

All the women of the village could see it, all but Katara and the young children. Her granddaughter was better off not being infatuated with a fire bender, but Kanna could understand the appeal. He was after all, the first male in the village to be both Katara's age and not her brother.

He didn't have eyes for anyone other than his sunny companion though, so Kanna felt no worries about her granddaughter shaking up with a fire bender. Sokka would not doubt have a heart attack.

She could see why the boy was so smitten with his golden haired companion. Even disregarding her exceedingly rare hair colour -Kanna had never seen anything like it, hair as golden as the sun- the female was pretty, with her strange markings on her cheeks and her sparkling grey eyes.

As if that wasn't enough, her personality was as bright and warm as her appearance.

Kanna very carefully kept away from saying the girl was as free as the air itself, but it was a very near thing.

Yet, when she looked at the blonde, she couldn't stop herself from internally admitting that perhaps, just perhaps, the Air Nomads weren't quite as extinct as the Fire Nation would have liked.

Which brought up the question that, if she were right, why were an air bender and fire bender travelling together? She wasn't even going to question how they'd end up friends -and more- for she didn't doubt it was an excessively long story. Yet, the only reason she could think of that two of them were travelling was in a search for the Avatar.

To help train him. Wherever he may be.

The boy couldn't be on the Fire Nation's side, otherwise he wouldn't be in the South Pole, not with an air bender. Not with such affection he tried to hide behind that tough guy mask.

He even helped Sokka train. The boy carried a sword with him, and clearly knew how to use it. Both that and all the other weapons Sokka had shown him. The fire bender had only needed a day to puzzle out each weapon before he could use them, if not as well as a fully trained Southern Warrior, with a startling amount of efficiency.

"Good morning!"

Snapping to attention, Kanna offered the golden haired girl, Naruto, a nod of greeting, quite unable to help the small smile that stretched across her face. She did have a very pleasant personality, and Kanna's eyes lingered on the orange of her parka -who else would dare to wear orange other than an Air Nomad?- for longer than what was probably appropriate?

"Did I dibble some soup down my parka? I know it wasn't the sea prunes, none of those escaped me," Naruto asked, twisting back and forth, pulling at the hem of the coat in question as she tried to see the non-existent stain.

"No… I just thought orange was an interesting colour choice I'm afraid."

The blonde froze up a little, before a cautious smile slowly crept across her face.

"You won't tell anyone, will you?"

Naruto offered her best sheepish smile with the question, looking left to right, as if expecting the Fire Nation to appear on the horizon for their current topic of choice. Well, that confirmed that then.

"Of course not… Though the company you keep-"

"Sasuke cool," Naruto cut off instantly, grey eyes hardening just the slightest and a firm line forming as her lips pressed together, "he's my best friend, and I trust him with my life. Regardless of what his lineage may be."

And that settled that. Perhaps Kanna didn't trust the fire bender.

But she trusted Naruto, she trusted the air bender among them and felt just the tiniest bit safer at night, knowing there was at least one fighter in their ranks, as temporary as that might be. If they were attacked, she knew Naruto would fight for them.

She had seen the way she'd interacted with the children, spoken with their mothers, sparred with Sokka and talked with Katara. Naruto would defend them, and because Naruto would defend them, so too would the fire bender.

And that would have to do for Kanna at this moment in time.

Now, if only she could talk the two into staying a bit longer.

Sprawling out across the fur-skins that filled the role of their bed, Naruto stared up at the ceiling, even as she snuggled closer to Sasuke's naked chest.

Here, in the thicken of snow and ice, Sasuke was the greatest blessing she'd ever known. His fire bending -what a strange world this was, no chakra and only one element, two if you were a smug fire bender like Sasuke- meant he was practically a full sized space heater she could cuddle up next to.

"They need help."

Sasuke spoke so quietly that Naruto barely heard him, wouldn't have known to listen for his voice in the blizzard winds were it not for the rumble of his chest.

Humming, Naruto tightened her grip on Sasuke's arm a little bit more, frowning into the pale flesh of his torso. Sasuke was right. These people were down trodden, they were losing hope. And once you lost hope, you lost everything.

She couldn't sit back and watch them lose the will to fight for what was right, to stop fighting for themselves.

"The spirits said to come here," Naruto murmured, running a hand across her face and letting out a low sigh as she did so, "clearly something going to end up going down. Looks like we're just playing the waiting game for now."

"Tch, wish they'd picked somewhere warmer for us to wait."

"Yeah yeah, shut your mouth and warm me up, Teme."

"With pleasure, Dobe."

I've been reading a few ATLA fanfictions, and the idea of reborn Naruto and Sasuke hit me. Please forgive me.

Tsume
xxx